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Latest news stories
Rather than posting news stories as a blog, they are now available at our new Digg-style social news site CFX News. You can submit your own news links/stories and vote on existing ones to promote them to the front page.
After game-changing run, Santorum quits White House race
Rick Santorum ended his improbable run for the White House on Tuesday after leading a Republican tilt to the right that could dog the more moderate front-runner, Mitt Romney, in November’s election.
Armored vehicles, humvees, body armor, sniper rifles being deployed by local police
a Police Department obtained a nearly $300,000 armored vehicle called a BearCat, and the Bristol Tennessee Police Department received a $122,000 robot that is used in bomb detection through Homeland Security grants.
New message boards
Check out our new Message Boards! Link is at the top of every page.
Clinch River might become site of Southwest Virginia’s newest state park
A group called the Clinch River Valley Initiative, which grew out of an economic development summit more than a year ago, is piecing together the funding for studies on the cost and economic benefits of creating a state park along the river.
Morgan Freeman to marry his step-granddaughter
A few weeks ago, a disturbing story broke that Morgan Freeman was maintaining a 10-year relationship with his step-granddaughter with whom he had a questionable sexual encounter when she was young. Yes, they are not related through blood, but Freeman is 72 and E’Dena Hines is now 27, which means she would have been 17 when they first… um… got together.
Community Web Portals: The Benefits
The benefits of well-designed, modern community portals are numerous. Among these are:
Increased traffic for other sites in the community. There is a popular myth that a successful community portal is a "problem" because it may take traffic from other established sites in the community. Anecdotal reports suggest just the opposite. A good community portal, by its nature, drives more traffic to other sites in the community that the portal links to. So there is no reason for the managers of established sites to oppose a community portal effort. In fact, they should support one, as it will likely increase traffic for them.
The death of cable TV
Here in Virginia, Roanoke County and the City of Salem are struggling with the same problem that many other localities in the country have: cable companies that won’t renew franchise agreements. Comcast purchased an aging cable system from Adelphia a few years ago when Adelphia went bankrupt. At the time, Comcast promised the localities it would upgrade the old system so it could support improved Internet access. But the upgrade never happened, and so there is little competition, high prices, and poor service for broadband in Salem and parts of Roanoke County.
One of the problems that the cable companies have is that both their physical plant and their business model is obsolete. The fifty year old business model does not generate enough revenue to justify replacement of the old analog copper/coax infrastructure. So the companies are understandably reluctant to continue to make franchise payments and/or to make expensive upgrades.
To make matters worse, companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are all eating away at the cable company customer base with better services that are not based on “500 channels and nothing to watch.” If Apple, which has only been dabbling in streaming video, decides to throw the full weight of the company behind a serious streaming service, Amazon and Netflix will finally have some real competition. Apple did not build a 1 million square foot data center in North Carolina just so Apple users could back up their iPhoto baby pictures.
If the cable companies embraced the open access business model, they could turn things around very quickly, but so far, the cable industry has been unwilling to listen.
Family of Miner Sues Former Massey Officials
The mother and siblings of one of the 29 coal miners killed in the 2010 Massey Energy Co. mine accident sued former officials of the company Wednesday, alleging that their intentional actions precipitated the accident and caused emotional distress to the family members.
Black bear rips porch screen, tears through garbage
A warmer than average spring is causing a lot of things to happen earlier than normal including blooming flowers, allergy season, and now bear sightings.
Blueprint for small business growth in Southwest Virginia released today
Regional officials released a blueprint for small business growth in Southwest Virginia this morning.
